Destemming machine



1956 M. c. MILLER DESTEMMING MACHINE Filed March 2, 1953 INVENTOR. Mafirav MILL 64? United States Patent DESTEMMING MACHINE Morton C. Miller, Larchmont, N. Y.

Application March 2, 1953, Serial No. 339,544

3 Claims. (Cl. 131-125) The present invention relates to destemming and handling of leaf materials although it may have a broader application to cutting sections, enlargements or veins out of sheet materials in general and thereafter handling such sheet materials.

The present invention will be particularly described in its application to the destemming and handling of tobacco leaves to be utilized as wrappers, binders or filler of cigars, but it is to be understood that the invention has a much broader application to handling of leaf tobacco in its various forms.

In handling leaf tobacco, particularly in cigar manufacturing, the leaves are selected according to their quality, color and strength for wrappers, binders or fillers. Before the tobacco leaf is destemmed it is first wet or cased, drained, stored for twelve to fourteen hours, and then fermentation may or may not take place after this procedure.

The operator then takes one leaf at a time, spreads the same out on her knee or holds it otherwise and picks the stem out with her finger, doing this with one leaf at a time until a pile has been stripped and booked. This procedure is laborious, depends upon experienced expensive operators, and may result in damage to high grade tobacco leaves resulting in their downgrading from wrappers to binders.

The best tobacco leaves have the most desirable color and texture and are used for wrapper leaves, where those of inferior grade may be used for binder or for filler purposes.

In removing the stems it is desirable that only the heaviest portion of the stem be removed for filler purposes.

Normally, damage may result as a result of hand destemming operations for wrappers, and there may be a downgrading of the high grade tobacco leaves which are to be used for wrapper or binder purposes.

It is among the objects of the present invention to provide novel machinery for handling leaf tobacco by which it will be possible to eliminate or remove the stems from the tobacco leaves.

Still further objects and advantages will appear in the more detailed description set forth below, it being understood, however, that this more detailed description is given by way of illustration and explanation only and not by way of limitation, since various changes therein may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention.

In accomplishing the above objects, it has been found most satisfactory to provide a suction table which will not only hold the leaf down but will provide means for removal of the stem. The stem remover may consist of traveling or rotating blades and desirably a slot arrangement is provided through which the removed stem may be discarded.

With the foregoing and other objects in view the invention consists of the novel construction, combination and arrangement of parts as hereinafter more specifically described, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein is shown an embodiment of the invention, but it is to be understood that changes, variations and modifications can be resorted to which fall within the scope of the claims hereunto appended.

In the drawings wherein like reference characters denote corresponding parts throughout the several views:

Fig. l is a top perspective view of one form of suction table showing a suction travelling arm in position on the table together with a part of a receiving table.

Fig. 2 is a transverse sectional view upon the line 2--2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional view upon the line 3-3 of Fig. 2.

I The mechanism of the present invention is particularly designed to eliminate the hand operation which involves laborious spreading of the wrapper, binder and filling tobacco leaves with manual removal of the stems.

According to the present invention the removal of the lower part or whole extent of the stem is accomplished uniformly from leaf to leaf by means of rotating cutters or knives while the leaf is being held in position upon a table, desirably by suction. After destemming, according to the preferred mechanism and procedure of the present invention, the leaf is transferred to a stack or book.

Referring to the embodiments of Figs. 1 to 3 there is shown a suction table A, a traveling suction arm B, a storage table C and a suction pump arrangement D. The suction table A is provided With a rotating cutter or knife E and a conveyor arrangement F for removing the cut-out stems.

The suction table A desirably has a top curved wall 20 with slot plates '21 positioned over the slot 22. The top plate of the table on both sides of the slot 22 has a plurality of suction openings 23 which communicate with the suction chambers 24. The suction chambers 24 have the side walls 25 and thebottom walls 26 and the inside walls 27.

The outside suction chambers G formed by the walls 20, 25, 26 and 27 usually have a relatively light suction applied through the openings 28 and from the rotary suc tion pump 37, driven by the motor 38 and forming part of the suction arrangement D. The openings 28 open into the intake chamber of the pump 37. The double suction chamber is broadly referred to by the letter G and it is formed of two compartments or suction chambers 24.

Between the walls 27, and particularly the curved portions 29 thereof, is positioned the rotating shaft 36 carrying the blades 31 and forming part of the rotary cutter E. Between the walls 27 there is provided a space through which the cut stems, as indicated by the arrow, may fall onto the conveyor F.

To this central chamber 29-29 which receives the cutter E is applied a strong suction through the opening 32 which will cause the leaf stem to be drawn into the chamber 2929 as indicated at 33. This stem portion 33 is then cut off by the rapidly rotating blades 31 of the cutter E. The suction desirably is applied through an intermediate plenum chamber 34 having the walls 35 and 36 (see Fig.3).

The motor 38 may drive both the shaft 30 as well as the suction fan 37.

The slot covers 21 are held in position by means of the screws 39 as shown in Fig. 1.

Desirably the chamber 2929 may be sealed so that the suction is not relieved through the slot 40 and so there will be a very strong suction in the cylindrical chamber H between the rounded portions 29. The sealing is accomplished by the blades 31 closely contacting the walls of the tubular casing formed by walls 29.

The conveyor P, which may pick up and carry to disposal the stems, consists of the belts 50 and 51 which ride on the rollers 52 and 53. The stems as indicated at 54 will fall on the conveyor andthen be carried to a suitable place for disposal.

The suction head B may have a flexible hose 55 or other means to apply a vacuum internally thereof and its lower face 56 may be provided with suitable openings to apply a suction to the destemmed leaf to remove it from the top plate 20 of the table A and transfer it to the storage table C. a

The table C has a top plate 57 upon which the cut or destemmed leaves may be stacked and booked.

The suction element B is desirably supported upon an arm 58 which is synchronized in any suitable manner with the suction application so that it will move the head B over to the table C carrying a leaf with each operation.

Desirably the suction is maintained in the chambers G and H until the stem has been removed by the cutter E and then the suction is cut off the table A and applied to the carrier B in any suitable manner. This will permit removal of the leaf after destemming and transfer to the booking table C.

The present invention is applicable to a wide variety of different types, grades and qualities of tobacco leaf.

For example, it is applicable to various wrapper leaves such as Conn. Shade, Sumatra or Floride Shade, which may vary in length from to It is also applicable to various binder leaves such as Conn, Havana Seed which are 16,to 30" in length, Conn. Broadleaf, which are 18 to 38" in length and Wisconsin which are 16 to 20" in length.

The invention is also applicable to various types of filler leaves such as Ohio, Zimmer Spanish or Little Clutch, which are 16 to 22" in length, Penn which is 16 to 32" in length, Puerto Rico which is 12 to 16" in length, Havana which is 12 to 16", Wisconsin whichis 14 to 16", Onondaga 16 to 20", and Manila which is 12 to 16". These leaves come generally in hands or groups of leaves tied together with the lower grade tied with grass reed and with the higher grades tied together with an inferior leaf.

Preparatory to being processed by the present invention these leaves are moistened so that they will lose their brittleness and may be readily spread and handled.

As many changes could be made in the above destemming and handling procedures and machines, and many widely different embodiments of this invention could be made without departing from the scope of the claims, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, what is claimed is: V

l. A tobacco leaf destemming mechanism comprising a table formed of a hollow casing, said casing having a central elongated slot to receive the leaf stem and provided with a plurality of vacuum openings alongside of said slot to hold said leaf down against said table, a cutting arrangement positioned below said slot to cut the stem from the leaf, said cutting arrangement consisting of an elongated tubular casing inside of said hollow casing with a rotary knife in said tubular casing, and a vacuum production arrangement to apply vacuum to said hollow casing and said tubular casing.

2. The mechanism of claim 1 in which there is a plenum chamber positioned between the vacuum production arrangement and the hollow and tubular casings.

3. The mechanism of claim 1 in which the rotary knife consists of a central axial shaft and a plurality of radial blades extending outwardly therefrom and closely contacting the walls of said tubular casing.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 662,212 Williams Nov. 20, 1900 781,489 Blundell Jan. 31, 1905 1,082,519 Hill Dec. 30, 1913 1,191,020 Marx July 11, 1916 1 FOREIGN PATENTS 522,327- Great Britain June 14, 1940 826,571 Germany Jan. 3, 1952 848,543 France July 24, 1939 

